Whispers in the Dark
by Lady Starscream
Summary: Everybody has a past, and ome people's pasts are darker than others; Even if they are an Autobot. So how do you tell who is a crimnal, a killer, a saint? the truth isn't allways spelled out in black and white...
1. introduction

Author's Note: This takes place on Cybertron at the beginning of the war (well, it starts out that way), then kind of gravitates towards the present. OC warning. There'll be a few made up characters thrown in just for good measure (I can't say anything more than that or I'll give it away) And a few of my own fancharas are included, just for the heck of it. The cities of Lepton and Meson started out as two seperate cities, but when they grew, their borders became blurred until they were considered one city.

Summary: Lepton & Meson is a neutral city, in a time of peace between the Autobots and Decepticons. But someone is threatening that peace by hunting down and killing Decepticons and Decepticon supporters. Why? and who is he? The media has give the serial killer the nickname "tag" because of a message he sends to his victims, saying "Tag, you're it." and if they don't leave town within the next 24 hours, they allways wind up dead.

With the Decepticon army advancing, someone is afraid the 'cons might try and take Lepton & Meson, do that person, Tag, is trying to stop them by getting rid of the Decepticons that are allready in town before the army reaches them and adds those Decepticons in Lepton&Meson to their numbers...

Here's the fic.

---------------------------

Cybertron, pre-Earth. Somewhere in the vicinity of Lepton & Meson (neutral cities considered one city)

The shadow crept stealthily down the darkened alley, keeping to the shadows atop a small overhang to one side. The mech he had been hunting staggered out of the back door of Macaddams oil house, completely unaware of his stalker. The blue and yellow car-type mech mumbled something to himself about bad prices and worse energon. The dark, dank alleyway smelled of spilled half-processed energon and other fluids, most likely from other patrons earlier on, and a turborat scurried away further on, making soft tapping sounds, like a tiptoing mech. The blue and yellow mech stopped momentarily, then continued on, realising what the sound was as the turborat let out a soft squeak.

The shadow leapt from the overhang, landing a blow neatly across the mech's shoulders, sending him sprawling. The blue and yellow mech sputtered "What the frag!?" And tried to get up. But his attacker had his full weight on top of the mech, pushing him facedown into the wet pavement. "Are you Spoke?" the mech asked, voice low.

"Who... who are you?" The mech underneath managed, struggling to get the smaller, but still heavier mech off of him.

"Answer me." The mech above him responded. He grabbed the Spoke's arm and twisted it painfully behind his back. "Yes.. yes I am." the mech finally eeped out.

"Thought so." The blue and orange Decepticon managed to catch a glimpse of black and silver armor, but his attacker's optics were masked by the dark blue visor he wore, making it almost impossible to make out the mech's face in the darkness.

A gunshot rang out.

The shadow-mech stood up, letting the lifeless mech's arm side to the ground beside him with a soft thump. He glanced around quickly, then soundlessly skirted back into the shadows...


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Here's the second part of "Whispers in the Dark", finally. It's not really that bad at all violence and language-wise, but the rating might go up later. It probably switch back and forth between the present moment on Earth and Cybertron back at the beginning of the war, though.  
Kudos and cookies and all that to the person who can guess who the group in the bar Flintlock passes are. )

--------------------------------------------------

the cities of Lepton & Meson (considered one city) on Cybertron, at the beginning of the great war...

"In the news tonight, a five-bot pileup on fifth circuit backed up traffic today for about an hour. Medics had to be called out to evacuate the injured mechs involved in the crash, though none of them seemed to be seriously injured..." The reporter prattled on in the background as the black and silver colored mech moved from one room of his apartment to another. He pulled out one of his energon cubes from a locked storage cupboard and flopped onto the living room couch.

"...and the protectorate is still confused over the case of two missing dockworkers tonight. The two truck-type mechs were transporting energon from the Lepton combined energy district to the nearby Pheylon district in Polyhex when they dissapeared. Investigators found evidence of energy discharge on the two victims' bodies, discovered just after second rotation on the southern outskirts of Meson. We have now discovered it seems these two, who's names have not yet been released, were murdered in the same fashion as the last three, though this is the first time the 'mystery stalker', Tag, has attacked and murdered two victims at once. The protectorate thinks this may mean a break in this case, as there has been more evidence collected from the two Decepticon-created mechs than any of the single victims in this case in the past..."

The figure on the couch reclined further. "Yeah, right. More evidence, you all are so stupid a cleaning droid'd have better luck findin' clues." he scoffed.

He finished his cube and subspaced it, making sure to dispose of the pilfered container elsewhere. The last thing that he wanted was to have the protectorate discover such evidence because he wasn't careful. He sighed and got up, clicking off the holo before walking out.

As soon as his feet hit the steps, he heard talking. "Hi." the neighbor grinned and waved.

"Hey, wass happenin?" Tag, or Jute as his friends knew him, waved back. "jus gettin home from work, huh?"

"Yep. You going out?" the neighbor replied. He was a fairly stout mech, Neutral, apparently, since his optics were yellow.

"Yeah. Gotta go meet this cute lil' chicka down at the local bar. heh." Jute replied with a chuckle.

"Ah, well, ya might want to be careful. Ya never know with that serial murdered out on the loose, yaknow." the neighbor, Timbre, was that his name? replied. Jute nodded. "Yeah, I heard about that. Found two more today." he shook his head. "Sad, I know."

Timbre snorted. "They're Decepticons. Someone obviously doesn't like having them around. I guess they think anyone with Decepticon descent is a bloody terrorist these days."

Jute nodded slowly. "Yeah. I know whatchya mean." He started towards the front door of the building. "Hey, I gotta go. I'll keep a carefull optic out." Timbre nodded. "Okay. See you later." the stout meach waved and dissapeared into his apartment. Jute shook his head and slipped out of the building, dissapearing into the shadows of the city.

Flintlock hurried around another corner. If he didn't speed up, he knew he'd be late. He rounded the back alley and hurried past a bar, glancing in at a group of Autobots talking way too loudly and probably just as intoxicated. He resisted the urge to go see if he could get them to buy him a drink, just because they were drink and he was thirsty. No, he had to have a clear head about him right now. and everybody knew that the bar tipped their cubes with some kind of chemical compound that would give you a buzz too soon, and a hangover too well the next day.

Flintlock continued on. The young camoflauge-print tank-type former glanced out the back door at him, wondering who he was, if he was just a shadow or a halucination, then realised the little red car-type next to him was trying to get his attention "Yo captain. Heloooo..." The tank turned back to his friend, wondering idly if that might have been the serial killer the protectorate was looking for. "Stow it, Fasttrack. I'm right next to you." the tank yelled back, though not angrily. "Hey Tripper, grab me a couple more drinks, willya!? Highwire wants one, too!" he yelled

"Yeah, sure."

Flintlock tried not to think that someone had just seen him, and could identify him should the protectorate arrest him (not that they had cause to, though) and hurried on his way.

He stopped behind an old abandoned residential building down in the slums. Nobody had been here in eons, it felt like. He smirked and stepped out from under the streetlight, tiptoing slowly into a darkened side alley.

A gun was suddenly pressed to the back of his head. "Come here often?" a deep voice teased. Flintlock instantly dropped and spun, bringing up his own weapon to bear on the owner of the voice. "Don't _do_ that!" he chided through gritted teethplates. "I could have shot you!"

The black on silver cartype just grinned in reply. "Were you followed?"

Flintlock did a double check. "nope."

"Good. Let's go, then. Modem's waiting for us."

The black flier, Flintlock, followed the black and silver cartype into the abandoned building. The dusty flooring creaked quietly under them as they skirted across it, silent as two shadows.

They finally came to a closed door that was locked, and Tag, the black and silver one, walked up and tapped softly. Once, twice, once, three times. His visor glowed dimly, as though trying to listen for sounds on the other side of it. The door slid open. Tag swung out onto a ladder and started to climb down. Way down. Three stories into the underground of the planet. Apparently a sinkhole had formed underneath the building, and this part of the lower floor of it had collapsed, providing a deep dark hole under it. And the only way to the surface was the locked door they had just come through. Or one of the two access tunnels under the city, since they were technically under the city now, being three stories down.

A light came on in one corner, dimly lit purple optics. "I hope you two weren't followed." the voice stated. It was slightly raspy, and lower than what you would think for his size. The minispy-sized grey-silver mech stood arms-crossed before the two normal sized Cybertronians.

"We weren't Quit worryin, willya?" Tag playfully chided.

Modem, the small grey-silver mech frowned. two of his shoulder-lights blinking as he did so. "Yeah. right. With the protectorate looking for us, we can never be too careful. I'd personally like to keep my vital functions, thank you so much for caring..." he was cut off when Flintlock grabbed the minispy around the neck and turned him around slamming him into the wall. Behind him tag made motions for him to stop and not to do it, and to put Modem down. Modem's purple optics narrowed dangerously. "I am not rendering my services to the two of you so you can manhandle me like some kind of a drone. If you wish to assault me, I can take my knowledge of the communications networking elsewhere." he stated.

Flintlock made a noise, but set him down. Tag came up and clapped a hand on Flintlock's shoulder. "It's okay, Modem, he's cool, aint chya cool Flint?" Tag said, giving his friend a grin. The grip Tag had on the black flier's shoulder nerve, inflicting needllike pain said something entirely different , however.

"And besides." Tag now turned back to Modem "Yaknow we really do appreciate yer workin with us. In fact, we'd hate ta have ta get along without chya. Yaknow. it's a dangerous world out there. Someone wit hknowledge like yerself can get in a whole lotta trouble without us ta back ya up." Tag send another grin in Flintlock's direction, releasing his grip. Flintlock nodded, too. Modem turned around to go back to his workstation. "Yeah, yeah, just keep me in energon, and I'll keep doing what I can for you." He sat down in front of his workstation- a tangled mass of wires of different sizes and colors.

The duo behind him walked up. "So, whatchya got for us today?" Tag asked. "Well, there's ths guy over in the west sector. Turns out he's not to happy with the Autobots, he's thinkin about joining Megatron. Bad news if they ever decide to turn in our direction. He's got floorplans and power grid layouts, too. The power company's a hard place to get into, though. But If this guy is not at work, and you know what I mean by that"

Tag nodded. "Okay. Got anything else"

"Yep." he nodded. "Here, let me show you what I found out today"  
And Modem brough up all the surveilance on the newest Decepticon citizenry of the cities of Lepton and Meson.

-------------------------------------

Fifth Circuit is a roadway. Since all of our roads have names, I thought the ones on Cybetron should. But since it's made for cars, and comprised mainly of roadways to begin with, it should have sections instead of individual roadways. The fifth circuit is a circular strip of roadway just outside the 'downtown' (main sector) of the city.

Extra cookies to anyone who's allready figured out who the trio is. That is, Flintlock, Tag (Jute), and Modem. And yes, Modem actually turns into an outboard modem. XD I thought it was cute!

The group in the bar is none other than Captain Retread of the Autobot infantry. He and his friends (his unit) are out having a few drink before going back out to active duty (out on the battlefield) Retread is Cap. Fasttrack and Tripwire (Tripper) both get shot down by Megatron later, and the rest of the unit also get... well, you get the idea. They're mentioned in the RP series fic "the Wrong Side of Right."

More will be up soon. Hopefully I'll have an actual storyline sometime soon. It started off rather... weak, but I'm working on it. :-) Takes place sometime during the RP Series. I'm not sure when.


	3. Chapter 2

Earth, present moment: 

Prime turned away from Teletraan-1, concern written all over his masked face. "What is it Prime?" Prowl asked. Jade was walking through about this time with the Marauders, headed out for training camp, something they had recently started. Jazz was just coming in from patrol. "I just recieved a transmission from the UCOA. Apparently they intercepted a transmission from Cybertron regaurding a crimnal that was never captured there. They believe he and his accomplices have traveled to Earth and are here somewhere, hiding out.

Driveby looked at her team, then at the Autobot leader. "Who?" she asked. "They don't seriously think it could be one of us, do they?" she finished. "No. I don't believe it is. According to this report, the neutral in question goes by the name of..." He paused.

"What? what is it, boss?" Cable asked. Prime looked as though he didn't want to reveal the information. "He goes by the name of "Tag." His accomplices are Flintlock and Modem." Prime didn't really want to reveal such information, but everyone allready knew the Marauders had a history. Some of them had a crimnal record dating back to the beginning of the war on Cybertron. Not to mention they had allready gotten in trouble with Earth's government for... dubious loyalties. They might know who the person was, and if encouraged, possibly come forward with information leading to the mech's wereabouts. Prime's thoughts flitted to one white werewolf by the name of Orcas. He wondered if it could be the same mech, but then decided it was too unlikely. Orcas had joined the Decepticons. He'd never changed his alt, mode that they knew about, according to his records, Orcas had allweays been a white werewolf. And why would a Decepticon-hunter later join the Decepticons. Maybe he was missing something. Cable looked away from Prime, to the other Marauders. Too quickly. Prime noticed.

"Don't Worry, Driveby." Prowl amended. "You and your team are protected by the Autobots. Because you are part of our faction you are protected from any accusations." he stated. "Well, that's good." Cable muttered. "Jade gave him a look. Nobody else said anything. The group walked away. "We'll keep an optic out for 'Im." Jade called behind her. The jet narrowed her optics slightly and eyeshifted to glance at her comrades. What did prowl mean by that comment. Were they in for more trouble?

again?

If they were, it was getting old. She was pretty sure everyone was getting tired of it. Klutch and his group had created enough trouble for them allready. Apparently, the group Klutch worked with, the Unted Nations Council on Offworld Affairs (UCOA) saw fit to start an investigation on this... serial killer. But why now? If this 'tag' person had done his crimes on Cybertron several million years ago, why wouldn't he have showed up sooner? oh wait, there was Orcas. Prime hadn't described what the mech in the report looked like. Hm.

She glanced over at Cap and Cable, who were on her left, and noticed Cable glancing back at the Ark. She quirked an optic ridge. Unless...

She concentrated on the little mech. The device hidden within her cockpit whirred softly to life. The Marauders were linked, in a way, thanks to it. The device could sense and link with other sparks; Well, only people who had touched it. and the Marauders had. But that was a long story and a lot of trouble. Jade had been slightly jealous of AlphaFightr's ability to see other people's thoughts and memories, and realised the device (the transmognifier) could do just that. Back when they were in trouble with the human government, Jade had discovered it after Alpha had a phschic caniption (hissyfit) over Indy forcefully mind-reading one of the Marauders. The muave and blue femmeseeker quirked an optic ridge, then looked away. Cable glanced at her, not even realising what she had done.Jade pretended not to notice. Having touched the mind of others sometimes provided insight on things that others couldn't see. And sometimes it was things she herself didn't want to see.

"Hey Driveby, you know everything about your team, right?" Jade asked.

"Yes, why?" came the emotionless response. "Just wondering." Jade shrugged, smiling nonchalantly. She had witnessed the questioning of her crew when Klutch tried to find things in their past to incriminate them with. She had reached out and touched minds, although it might have only been temporary, thanks to Alphafighter's psychic ability, Indy's abilities to see things others were about to do, and the Transmognifier that the Marauders had all interlinked with just one solar day before.

Gunlock looked over at Cable. Cable looked at Jade. Jade was looking in front of her towards the practice range, not at her teammates in front of her.

"Hey, guys, wait up!" Jazz called, jogging out after them.

Cable skittered in front of Gunlock. "what if he finds out!!?" the minispy hissed low. "He won't can't not now." Gunlock replied simply, so that none of the others would uinderstand if they heard him. "Hey, G, wassup?" Jazz clapped a hand on Gunlock's right shoulder. Gunlock scooted away. "we are going to practice. If you wish to join us, please ask the commander." he looked at Jade. Jade looked over at Jazz, then Gunlock, then at Cable, who had switched to walk on Gunlock's left side (pointedly away from Jazz) "Sure." she shrugged. Cable gulped silently.

They reached the shooting range, which also had a sort of maze, the same type of thing scythe had used to train the Kintaari when they first became part of the war, before Driveby's team came to Earth. "So, what's today?" Jazz asked Jade, grinning. Driveby looked at Ty, then t Gunlock, who had edged away from Jazz to pick up a target and set it up, coming back over to stand next to the black and white again, but this time at a distance. Jade shrugged again. "I don't know, what do you guys want to do?" she looked at her team. Cable opticshifted to look at Gunlock and Jazz, then back at Jade. Jazz saw and quirked an optic ridge under his visor.

-------------------------------------

Yeah. just totally off the top of my head. That's how I'm writing this. reviews welcomed. flames not.  
Don't worry about how "tag" might have gotten to earth (in the report). I'll figure something out for that later.


	4. Chapter 3

It was four hours into the second rotation, and just past nightfall when Granite logged off his console and shut it down to head home. He had been reviewing the power grid, trying to figure out why there had been a series of blackouts in the west sector. Well, that was what he wanted his superiors to think. The blackouts had actually been carefully devised, allowing Decepticon operatives to break into key points of interest and get information on the city's layout and undercity access tunnels. 

He quickly erased the logfiles, covering the fact that he had copied the files with the city's power grid. He had worked hard to get this far, and he didn't want to lose his position anytime soon. Megatron had promised him a place in the empire once the Decepticons had taken over Cybertron, which was inevitable. Besides, Granite had been created a Decepticon. Who was he to ignore his proud heritage?

a window popped up on the screen. "You have 1 new message." he clicked on his mail account. Probably another notice from the section director. The mottled grey Decepticon sighed and clicked on it. The date it was sent was almost a full day ago, minus only about 3 hours. Primus forbid he miss an important memo. The section director would yell at him till his auios melted if he did. The mech didn't like him probably because he was a Decepticon creation. Even though Lepton&Meson was supposed to be a neutral city. Granite reminded himself to melt the loud-mouth mech down slowly once the Decepticons took over.  
If they ever did, that is. He wasn't totally sure about their conquest. But it was better to be safe then sorry.

It opened, and the message was NOT what he expected it to be.

"Tag, you're it"

Granite gasped and glanced around quickly. When he looked back, the message had deleted itself. He quirked an optic rigdge. He checked the computer's logfiles. The message had been sent from the console across from his. But why? and how? the mech hadn't been here at the time the message was sent. He had gone home early that day.

And he didn't think the mech could be the serial killer the protectorate was looking for. He was allways so... nice. He didn't believe in Decepticon superiority like some of the other mechs, but he was also a Decepticon. Could a Decepticon be doing this? but why? to test the loyalty of other Decepticons in the city? no, that didn't make sense. If he was, then why hadn't "tag" killed any Autobots. No, all his victims had been Decepticons. Granite took a deep breath to cool his systems, and calmly dialed the protectorate.

When he got off the communicator with them, he looked around again. What if the killer was in the building? everyone knew that the previous victims had been sent a message, and 24 hours later turned up dead. The sound of a trash can being knocked over two cubicles down made Granite jump in his seat. He looked around again. "Screw this! I'm not going to sit here and wait for them to get here and find me dead!" he thought. he got up and carefully edged away, keeping his focus on the cubicle. He turned and ran for the door.

He'd heard about the horrible deaths, some of the victims had had limbs torn off, been tortured in various manners. Granite didn't want to think about it as he waited impatiently for the elevator to arrive on his floor. He noticed when it stopped on the floor under his. "What if the killer just got on the elevator!?" he thought. He was on the fifth floor. The cleaning crew didn't come in for another half a cycle (half hour), so who was it? He backed away and headed for the stairs.

The hallway was dark, but he scrambled down it anyway, pushing open the door to the main level with all of his might, and hurried towards the door. a shadow flitted past the front windows. Granite froze. "Okay, not going out the front then." If it was the protectorate, it would no doubt be more than just one mech. So he headed for the back alley entrance to the bulding.

The back door slammed open, hitting the trash cans next to it. making the truck jump again. Granite glanced around and started to transform. Just when he had gotten into vehicle mode and started his engine, something hit the ground in front of him. "Transform." a deep voice ordered. He _really_ hoped it was the protectorate now! He transformed back, talking as he did so. "Thank goodness you're here, officer, I..." he trailed off as he reached his robot mode, realising it was not the protectorate.

There was nowhere to run the other direction. The alley was a dead end. and the door he had come out of was locked from the inside. So he couldn't go back into the building that way. Stowing any fear, he hoped since the mech was bigger he could just plow through him. The mech who was black and silver, simply jumped gracefully into the air, letting Granite rush past. The Decepticon stumbled and fell, trying to get up as the mech walked over. He couldn't do it quick enough, and now the mech was towering over him, whatever was covering his optics glowing a pale bluish.

Granite simply scooted back. "Plase don't kill me! I just got your message tonight, I really wasn't..."

"Shut up!" the black and silver mech snapped.

This was tag, allright. Granite gulped. Granite continued scooting, realizing his back was against the dumpster acropss the alley from his building. He was trapped!

He put one hand on it to try to pull himself up.

Tag slammed the lid on his fingers and jumped up to sit on it. Granite winced but held in his cry of pain, only letting a small squeak slip out.

"Yaknow," Tag started, almost conversationally "I've heard every excuse in the book, but yours is the best one yet." he leaned over so his head was right next to Granite's who was yanking on his hand, trying to get it free. "Here, lemme help ya with that."

There was a "zzzzip!" sound, and Granite screamed. Pain seared across his hand, down his arm and into his chestplate. He pulled his hand free, now minus all his fingers, and freely squirting energon, and tried to run.  
Something landed on his back. "Ah-ah-ah, can't have you leavin when the fun's just beginning." Strong arms grabbed his arms, pinning them together, looping wire around them, tying it tightly so he couldn't free his arms. "P-p-please!" Granite begged. But Tag said nothing, simply dragging his victim back into the alley.

A few minutes later, painfull screams rang out. Then the silence returned to the darkness.

--------------------------------------------

When the protectorate arrived, they found no signs of the mech in his office cubicle upstairs. Just the blank message window on the computer. Then they started searching the area. They found the puddle of energon and oil and other fluids behind the building, but still no mech. Till one of them looked in the dumpster.

"Ugh." the officer scrunched up his nose. "Found him."

The mech was dead allright. The side of one head was dented flat, armor plating ripped away and wires had been pulled out, one arm was torn completely off, the other which was also severed was missing all it's fingers but the thumb. The mech's face was twisted in fear, the look forever frozen in death.

The other one walked over. "Great." he stated sarcastically. "What's it gonna take to stop this guy?" he shook his head and shut the lid, calling for the investigators.

Meanwhile, a half-drunken blue and green mech staggered out of a bar across the street, a few buildings down, gave the officers a nod, and stumbled almost falling completely over before straigtening himself and continuing on into the night. Once out of sight, the mech simply grinned and walked casually down the street, like he had never drank a drop. The falling-over drunken state was all an act, of course. Not that the protectorate knew that, though.

He downed the rest of his cube, whistling merrily as he melted into the shadows once again...

-----------------------------------------------

See, RG! this is what happens when Orcas gets into my imagination! LOL. Just kidding. But he makes for a really great inspiration. You've got a heck of an evil character, there. heh. Thanks for the inspiration. :-)

I had more planned for poor Granite, but mom and dad decided to have a shopping day and I had to cut it short. Oh well.

Oh, yeah, just a couple things:

**First rotation** is the first half of the day, which is lit, **second rotation** begins right before nightfall, and is the second half of the day.

A **communicator **is another word for phone. Only this one has a viewscreen. I couldn't think of anything else to call it.

**the Protectorate** is the police, crime scene investigators, etc.

Any questions? no? okay then. :-)

I'm kind of winging it on this fic to begin with, since I don't really have any idea where I'm going with the 'present moment' part of this. I have a little bit more planned for the next chapter, which will include the chara I asked Crystal Phoenix about. I can't reveal her name just yet. Anyway, more will be up soon.

If you leave a nice review, i'll try to hurry and get it up sooner.

Later!


	5. Chapter 4

Special thanks go out to Rampage's Girl for writing the part of this chapter with Orcas in it. (the second half of the chapter) Orcus is hers, btw. Thanks RG!

Prime turned away from Teletraan-1. The supercomputer had some of Cybertron's historical records in it's database, but not crimnal records. Prowl looked up from a console across the room where he was working. "It would seem we have little or no information on this person." he noted. The tactician walked over. "I fail to see the logic of investigating something that happened millions of years ago. Howerever, if it pertains to our current mission here on Earth, and it is possible this 'tag' person could be hiding out here, it may be a risk to our crew." he stated.

Prime nodded. "According to the city council leader, Tag was spotted in Iacon right before the Ark took off. According to her, he could very well be dangerous."

"Her?" Prowl echoed.

"Venturi." Prime admitted.

Prowl seemed a little suprised, though he did well to conceal that. "But I thought she was... no longer functioning."

It was true. Venturi, one of Beta's creations, was older than even Elita-1. Beta, who had created Mirage's creator (a femme) had also created Venturi.

Prime simply nodded. "She avoided becoming a casualty of war by siding with the Decepticons when they invaded her city. She apparently retained her position, yet remained neutral at the same time."

Prowl's optics narrowed slightly. "I wonder how Shockwave would allow her to remain in a position of power, especially since she is neutral."

Prime shrugged. "I don't know. But since we don't have any way to link to the judicial archives, we have no way of knowing what happened or where. For all we know it could have been an ops mission the entire time." Prime was referring to one of the underground groups on Cybertron. Autobots who hid out and tried everything they could to sabotage the Decepticons's rule over the planet. Perhaps that was how Tag had gotten away with murdering so many Decepticons. After the Decepticons took the city, apparently Lepton & Meson was so small it had somehow slipped into the cracks of the gridwork, so to speak, and had been forgotten about. That is, until now.

Prime's optics suddenly lit. "Perhaps Venturi wasn't completely wrong about Tag."

Prowl eyed the readouts on Teletraan-1's screen. "Yes, there is one mech we know who likes to hunt down other mechs." he replied, somewhat disgustedly. "But to think Orcas could have once been an Autobot." he looked back at Prime.

"With him, anything could be possible." Prime responded, voice serious. "There's only one way to find out, though." he added.

Prowl glanced at him. It's not like we can just walk up to him and ask. He have no idea where he is currently."

Prime started to type, and teletraan beeped. "No, but I'm sure we can use skyspy to help us find him."

"You can't be serious. How do we know that he be truthful anyway?" Prowl questioned. Prime almost sighed. "I know, but it's the only lead we have. And if he does not cooperate,. perhaps we will be able to finally capture him, and be rid of Orcas for good." there was a note of strong dislike in that statement.

--------------------------------

Meanwhile, about 10 miles north of the Ark, a group of mechs and femmes had gathered on the training ground made for the 'novice boot camp' Jade had put together. The mazelike structure looked something like a lasertag or paintball field. Jade just grinned, remembering last time she had to do this. "Okay, now here's how this is going to go..." she knew Ratchet would have caniptions if she used low-level energy bolts for the guns stationed on various parts of the course. If anyone got damaged at all she'd be hearing about it. She was still keeping an optic on Cable and Gunlock, though. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about those two... they knew who tag was. She could sometimes sense things, especially about those connected to her through the Transmognifier. And she couldn't entirely pick out their thoughts from among the other myriad of voices, but they knew... something.

Jazz sauntered up beside her. "You gotta be kidding, right?" the grin that split his features implied he was happy about it, though. Jade rolled her optics. "It's a paintball maze, Jazz. It's supposed to be a training excersise, not fun and games." The saboteur just grinned. "Peice 'a cake!" he hooted.  
Jade looked over at the Marauders. Hm. No complaints from them either. "Well, at least nobody's complaining about an impromtu repaint. That's good." she remembered Mic and Needle both yelled at Scythe about their paint jobs getting ruined when they went through this, and that was before they had even started.

Jade explained how the maze would work, Beacon and Cable could go through the small tunnelways, though Beacon had the option to go up on top of the barriers since he could fly. Nobody was allowed to fly all the way across. The object was to run through the maze, get the flag at the other end with their name on it, and come back without getting paintballed. She smiled and informed Jazz that since he thought it was so easy, he could do the balancing act running across the top of the barriers with Gunlock while getting to the end. If they fell off, they had to start the course over. The training would not end until everyone had gotten to the end, gotten their flag, and gotten back. (unlike before, when there had been just one flag)

"Also." jade announced "Do not try to share cover. It will get several guns aimed at you, and those walls." she pointed "Are only big enought for one person to hide behind." she grinned. Mic and needle had gotten two facefulls of paint trying to do that before. "Alright, at the line!" she grinned. She was sure Jazz was gonna love the 'secret panel' atop the barriers. There were some barriers he and Gunlock would have to run across that were only one half a foot-legth in width, and some a full foot length in width. There was a panel on one of those that would spray neon pink paint when stepped on. She grinned wider at the thought. "Ok...go!" the group sprinted forward.

--------------------------

Meanwhile, just inside the tree-line, the entire thing was being watched by a somewhat bored werewolf. Though he seemed to be a tad amused at the sound of paintballs flying and cries of

"Get out of the way!" (Cable) and

"You're attracting more of them than I am!" (Beacon)

"They're PAINT! they're not magnetic!" (Cap)

And Jade laughing in the background.

Orcus was lying on a branch in the tree, in his robot mode, watching the fiasco. He had planned on snatching one of them to cure his boredom, but until he could get one or two of them alone, this would have to suffice.

For the moment, anyway.

His energon-and-blood-covered claws tapped onto the hard wooden outside of the tree, and his demon red optics watched them. Snow-white ears flicked after a moment of nothing, and he was about ready to look up when there was the sound of a ton of paintballs being fired at once, and then a voice yelled:

"SEE?! They ARE magnetic!"

A throaty chuckle escaped the werewolf's vocaliser, and he pushed himself up into a position so he was sitting up straight and straddling the branch. After another moment, he slid from his perch and onto the ground, transforming as he did so. Grass, and the dead deer he had killed out of boredom, crunched under his foot as he landed. His ears twitched again, and he began to leave, expecting to go back to his base.

He was not expecting to come face-to-face with Prime's rifle.

Normally, any Transformer (Decepticon or Autobot) who came face-to-face with Optimus Prime's rifle would near about faint at the sight of it, or tremble. But Orcus didn't even sweat.

Instead, he just looked up at the Autobot leader, monotony evident in his red optics. Orcus flicked the blood off of his claws, and asked, "To what do I owe this honor?"

Prime"s optics flashed like lightening; the cockiness of the Decepticon wolf was overbearing, and very much so. The Autobot leader opened his mouth to say something, but Orcus beat him to it, "You want something from me, I presume?"

"Possibly." Prime watched the wolf carefully, even though Orcus was making no hostile signs. Then again, this was the Decepticon with which one could be having a civil game of Chess one minute, and then the next, you'd be at his mercy with his hands around your spark.

Orcus's ears perked up, "I see. And judging by the way you haven't shot me yet, I figure it's information you can get from no one else," as he said this, he sat down against the tree, back to the bark, and looked up at him, "Have my actions brought some age old investigation into a new light?" By the way Prime tensed, Orcus knew he had hit dead on the mark. A fang-filled smile spread over his face. "Which would it be? I can tell you I had nothing to do with the Green, Yellow, Red, You're Dead case."

"Tag." Prime managed to force out, only just containing a growl. He was the Autobot leader, he could not loose his cool in front of a Decepticon. Or anyone.

"Tag? Well, well, I didn't know I was being compared to him." Orcus chuckled, and pulled something off of the ground. Prime readied his rifle, only to realize that the wolf had merely picked a flower, and was now examining it, "Tag."

Prime nodded.

The flower was lifted to Orcus's nose, and he sniffed it. His red optics lifted to meet Prime's cool blue ones. "Well, this is a horse of a different color, ey?" He stood, "I'm afraid I am not Tag, though I'm deeply honored you think that. He was one of the best." Orcus spun the flower in his fingers, "However, if you're interested, I may just know who he is."

"Who?"

His muzzle opened, but then shut itself. He looked down at the flower as he thought. After a moment, he looked back up, "Why ruin your fun? After all, you're doing so well on figuring this out on your own, why should I stop you?" His voice was maliciously teasing the Autobot Commander, "Plus, I enjoy watching you Autobots scramble about, trying to find answers, trying to stop what is in motion, try to find what is lost."

"Orcus." The rifle raised.

"I'm afraid I've told you all I'm willing to, my dear Commander. However, I suggest asking some of your officers, maybe they know who should be in prison, wearing the black and white." He winked. "Goodbye."

And, before Prime could ready to fire, Orcus was in the tree and out of sight. Something caught Prime's optic. He raised his gun. Only to lower it when he realized it was nothing but the purple flower the werewolf had picked. It landed by Prime's feet, and the commander sighed.

Orcus had escaped his grasp.

**End Notes:** Black and white is a hint Orcas is giving. I don't know if Prime will recognize it, though.


End file.
